ENGLAND
The Times
August 9, 2018
By Andrew Norfolk
Two lauded Roman Catholic schools allowed a culture of “appalling sexual abuse” to flourish for decades because safeguarding the church’s reputation was a higher priority than the protection of children, a damning report has found.
Monks at Ampleforth, in North Yorkshire, indulged in open displays of paedophilia. At Downside, in Somerset, a headmaster built a bonfire to burn staff files that may have held incriminating evidence.
Each public school was attached to a monastery run by the English Benedictine Congregation, whose past and current handling of misconduct allegations is under investigation by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.
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